There is no pretence anymore. Nigeria has actually never been at such crossroads as another monster of huge size and stature– ritual killing for money– bulldozes its way into the nationwide psyche, looking every one in the face. It has the dimension of a national despair. Rejecting this evil is dreadful, needless and unsuccessful. That is the reality numerous are now slowly, but regrettably beginning to acknowledge.

Over the past years, abduction of people has been on the rise. Some people just disappeared without any trace. A few who handled to return house alive have informed nightmarish and unbelievable tales of what they saw in camps where they were required to. There, victims were dismembered right prior to their own eyes in such a gruesomely meaningless orgy, leaving their blood streaming down in rivulets. Their crucial parts were chopped off there and after that, and kept away for consumer who required them.

At the centre of this burgeoning human parts trade are men and women who prepare beauties to allow them earn money they did not work for. When they can not purchase already-harvested parts, they snatch their victims, eliminate them, and later on discard their remains. In partnership with their juju doctors, they continue to use what they have for “money routines,” as it is now called in street parlance. How that works, stays a secret that might take science an age to unravel.

According to Sunday Sun examination, this “money ritual’ now making Nigeria and Nigerians edgy didn’t start the other day. It was birthed as Internet scam. Growing like a weevil, it started gnawing at the fabrics of the Nigerian society, slowly forcing things to give way, enabling them to fall apart progressively. Many did not observe. Those who did merely waved away the criminal activity, leaving things unattended to, unaddressed. Now, it has collected speed.

Some people believe “money ritual” has already obtained a hazard of epidemic percentage, spreading out far faster than ever thought of, treacherously threatening the genuine presence of the Nigerian society now in distress.

Sunday Sun found out that the involvement of a band of desperate, unrelenting youths is uneasy. They go by the name “Yahoo, Yahoo,” young boys. Many of them are graduates from the numerous tertiary organizations. Even hardly literate ones who just understand that the wicked trade brings money are participating their droves.

Our reporter even more found out that in the beginning, the Yahoo kids who were majorly Internet scammers were primarily coning, and scamming the unwary ones– both Nigerians and foreigners. However gradually the pace of their ill began to subside. Lots of had actually started to understand both their techniques and their antics. So slowly they shifted to the next level– utilizing human blood to earn money. That is their brand-new frightening platform. They hypnotise their victims sort of, and cause them to be under an impact they can not explain and start to do their bidding. That they now call “Yahoo Plus.”

On the other hand, Yahoo Plus young boys eliminate their victims and use them for money routines. They target their moms and dads, brother or sister, pals and neighbours. It is either they drag their victims to a juju medical professional, or do so through a remote spiritual ways or eliminate them on their own. There are some who do various things that sicken. When things go as they planned, in no time, the Yahoo Plus chap is currently incredibly abundant, attracting wealth.

Now, in their blind quest for money, some are told to either consume their own feaces, or make love to their moms and dads or do such unusual and discomforting things that provoke humanity to revolt. Very few saw this strange act performed for money sake coming. But it is here, and threatening to remain for as long as it is allowed to be.

Money ritual and NOA

According to Paul Odenyi, assistant director, Press, at National Orientation Agency (NOA), Abuja, ritual killings and advance-fee scams are thought about a part of the general concept of worth decay in the country.

“One would believe that the young generation, with their exposure and spread of spiritual faith, will have absolutely nothing to do with rituals. What we are seeing programs that the youths and the whole society appear to be saying “anything that will give us money is worth trying.”

Ritual killing, he stated, “is based on the belief that you can compromise human beings to make money. It is a wrong belief which the entire of society should rise against.

“Just like ritual killing, Yahoo kids are making use of the rise in Internet economy to scam of people of their hard-earned wealth.”

Legislators raise the alarm

Days earlier, your house of Representatives raised the red flag, following the wanton killing of innocent citizens for ritual functions mostly for money making.

The lower chamber desired the Federal Government to state a state of emergency on the social vice now increasing.

It entrusted the Inspector General of Police, Usman Baba Alkali, and his officers to take proactive steps and up their surveillance and intelligence-gathering game so as to jail and prosecute those involved in the evil.

The parliamentarians also tasked the National Orientation Agency (NOA), parents, schools, religious leaders along with the media to begin projects to change the pattern.

The pronouncements were sequel to a movement induced the flooring of your house by the Deputy Minority Leader, Toby Okechukwu entitled: “Need to Curb the Rising Trend of Ritual Killings in Nigeria.”

Okechukwu was aghast that ritual killings had actually obtained frightening heights in current times.

According to him, “the Red Cross Society in 2017 reported that it got 10,480 reports of missing individuals in Nigeria.”

He regreted that “merchants of such wicked acts typically use the social media as a prepared tool to market their evil behaviours.”

He included that “such vicious and barbaric acts ought to no longer be promoted in our society, offered the needs of today’s world,” stating them as “unacceptable standards.”

Ritualists’ current activities

Mid recently, a video of Yahoo kids emerged, showing them celebrating their exploits. In the viral video, a few of them were putting celebratory drinks on their phones, in the hope it would bring them fortune.

Another video likewise surfaced recently including youths who stormed a bank in Lagos wearing adult diapers. Witnesses reasoned that the youths were informed that at the recitation of some necromancies at the bank, either the personnel or the ATM might begin to give money for them to gather.

Remember that a fortnight earlier, the Ogun State Police Command detained one Majekodunmi Balogun, a 20-year-old, who confessed to collaborating with his pals to kill his girl buddy, 18, for money ritual.

The young man was arrested alongside three other teens.

In Delta in 2015, a boy also killed his woman good friend for ritual purposes.

On the other hand, the gruesome killing of a young woman, Iniubong Umoren, who was drawn to a specific place in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State for a task interview, remains a sour point.

In Owerri, lately, a viral video of an alleged Yahoo young boy was seen. In the video, the man sitting on a potty was cleaning his anus with pieces of bread and eating the very same at a road media. Some individuals said the video was conjured, but that mirrors a social malaise spiraling out of hand.

EFCC dealing with vice

Some days earlier, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), acknowledged that the Yahoo young boys were now including a spiritual angle to their criminal offense, swearing to sustain its attack against them.

In its Facebook page, EFCC lamented that the fraudsters had raised the stakes, but ensured that it would not be business as normal as anybody captured in the act would pay the rate.

“No going back on the onslaught against Yahoo-yahoo or yahoo-plus, whatever nomenclature,” the firm stated.

“Give up, or give up. The Eagle will get you anytime, anywhere.”

Over time, the anti-graft body has made hunting down the cyber scammers a huge piece of its duty.

In Abeokuta for example, EFCC detained 60 presumed Internet fraudsters throughout an award ceremony at a hotel. Comparable sting operations in Lekki-Ajah axis in Lagos said to be home of numerous Yahoo young boys had yielded unthinkable results. Significant cities in the nation like Benin City, Port Harcourt, Owerri, Ibadan, Osogbo, Ilorin, Abuja, to name a few, are home to numerous cyber fraudsters.

Nigerians react to hazard

The standard ruler of Umunkwo autonomous neighborhood in Imo State, Eze Declan Izim, a lecturer at Alvan Ikoku Federal College of Education, Owerri, condemned the Yahoo hazard on the rampage, declaring: “I condemn it in its whole.”

In Benin City, Edo State, locals also flayed the spate of increasing ritual killings, and traced the root of the threat to get-rich fast syndrome spirit now ruling the youths.

Talking about the advancement, the Vice President, South-South of National Youth Council of Nigeria, (NYCN), Comrade Innocent Ajayi, who is likewise the immediate previous Edo State chapter chairman of NYCN, said it hurts that ritual killing is resonating among the bristling Nigerian youths.

“Taking the life of an individual to acquire wealth is not the very best way to go; however there is something that we should understand: these youths we are talking about are people who need to have gone through the tutelage of our various leaders, either through parental childhood, religious ways or through education.”

An anonymous responder said that he was yet to overcome his current attack and the backlash he got from his colleagues and the Yahoo young boys.

He told Sunday Sun that he publicly criticised them for what they mean, requiring them to turn against him.

He revealed that the so-called Yahoo young boys are those who spray them excellent money while artists in the town perform on stage.

He said that some artistes were so bitter over his comments that they implicated him of blocking their chance to make good money, worrying that the Yahoo boys are now the ones making their programs to blossom.

He flayed the way of life of some Nigerian celebrities, preserving that they are influencing the more youthful ones in many unfavorable methods.

In a current radio broadcast monitored in Lagos, a native doctor told him listeners that the Yahoo difficulty had actually ended up being so dreadful that even some moms and dads now bring their kids charging him to prepare appeals to enable them master the evil business.

Also in Lagos, a serving Nigerian army soldier last year was allegedly captured among the Yahoo fraudsters while understudying the trade.

Reason for the issue

Taking a look at how Nigeria is getting it all wrong, a Yoruba Ifa priest, Chief Yemi Elebuibon said: “We can adduce this to the difficulty in the country. People are going through difficult and really tough times with numerous finding it tough to meet up with their everyday financial commitments, including having the ability to feed themselves and their families because the government has stopped working in its obligation of providing job opportunity for the populace.

“The youths on the other hand, do not consider it suitable to get participated in feasible financial activities. Instead, majority of them have turned to desperate ways of making it in life, consisting of the money-ritual choice and engaging in cyber criminal activities.

“One would have anticipated that these youths would think about taking up viable financial activities and earning good living. It is regrettable, nevertheless, that majority of them have required to embracing and cutting corners the most wicked alternatives.”

On the most likely effects of the menace, he noted that any wealth got illegally is bound to be fleeting, and can just be delighted in for a limited time.

“Whatever one does not labour for can not be enjoyed as one would liked to. What we are witnessing now is extremely weird to Yoruba land. It is especially disturbing that we do not know where these people get the details, how they set about it, and those who concur to do it for them. There is no doubt about the reality that those who engage in this practice will always live to regret their actions; they won’t go scot-free.

Interest political class

Some people believe that politicians are intensifying the issue with their huge salaries and over the top living. One of such is Comrade Ajayi who stated: “Let me attract our political class that it is time for their members to stop using money flamboyantly, showing the world that they have actually gotten here.

“I remember when I was maturing; I never ever had the opportunity of seeing individuals throw money as if they just went somewhere to choose it.

“And so, the Yahoo we are seeing today is a product of what the youths are seeing; that is why they want to make wealth by all methods.”

Get rich syndrome root of problem

On his part, Mr Tony Abolo, a veteran broadcaster and media expert, blamed the quest to make fast money instead of effort as being the root of the problem.

He said up until the society starts asking concerns about the source of individuals’s wealth, and the political class stops showing their wealth, the society is bound to deal with much ills.

“We are handling moral depravity of society. We are handling people who believe money is everything. That is the lifestyle of the political class. Everyone is running around going after money; no one is chasing effort; that is the issue,” Abolo said.

Society has stopped working

According to Eze Izim, what is going on symbolizes “loss of social worths. I keep in mind in those days, there were things individuals quickly got frightened of. That was blood; the other is the sacredness and sanctity of the human life.

“In those days, there were some males of title who abhorred blood; they could not shield even a chicken’s blood; they would faint at mere seeing blood.

“But now, teenagers are even eliminating their own moms and dads for money rituals– all since money has actually become everything.

“Then, kids learnt genuine worths right from the home. They discovered that reputation is much better than riches. Today, money rules. That is why our teens are going crazy.”

He decried what happened in Ogun State just recently, describing it as “blood-stirring.”

He revealed sadness that “similar abominations are also taking place in other places unreported.”

Dr Grace Onyeabo, a parent and proprietress, God’s Grace Academy, Lagos, is also dissatisfied, saying that “what we are seeing now is the outcome of the failure of the society to focus on the calls to deal with the requirement to re-orientate our kids to embrace quality value system.

“Any culture that places too much focus on materialism is destined experience what we are experiencing now.

“Nigeria is one nation that commemorates wealth whose source people do not know.

“Somebody who could barely meet his fundamental requires some months ago unexpectedly prospers and nobody is questioning his source of wealth. Instead those who must lead the way in trying to identify how he came about his sudden wealth are the ones at the forefront of making the arrangements to give chieftaincy title on the suspicious character.

“Things can just worsen wherever people fail to do the right thing. The people need to begin to report anybody they presume to have actually gotten wealth illegitimately to law enforcement representatives for correct investigation into their source of wealth.”

Federal government failure also responsible

Chief Elebuibon blamed the government for failing in its duty of offering tasks for the youths, although he said that the government’s failure ought to not be taken as an excuse to resort to illegality.

“Our youths must discover ways of engaging themselves in something good, meaningful and satisfying skills. They should stop searching for non-existent white-collar jobs. But above all, the federal government has a lot of functions to play in the lives of the youths.”

Role of parents likewise highlighted

Comrade Ajayi wants moms and dads to start to question their kids.

According to him, “when a kid who simply finished and has no job yet comes back home driving a car, and has no proof of what he did to buy such an automobile, I believe the moms and dads ought to ask questions prior to accepting him. Those who fail to do so are teaming up with evil.”

Towing similar line, Chief Elebuibon regreted that how some parents even motivate their children especially those who enjoy ‘Yahoo yahoo.’

“Imagine a situation where parents do not see the need to question their children’s source of wealth when they get back with things that ordinarily must be considered beyond their earnings. Your child gets home with an exotic cars and truck for instance, but instead of question how he got it, you take part commemorating him. Many parents need to be blamed for failing in their obligation.”

Service to present hazard

Chief Elebuibon thinks diligence and effort are ways out of the problem.

He likewise believes “those who are desperate to be rich will certainly spend for their desperation some day.

“In Yoruba land, it is thought that no deity will ever aid a lazy individual. Diligence should constantly come first.”

In the same vein, Eze Izim urged that while “the churches and mosques preach, and we the standard rulers talk, the government needs to be committed to providing tasks.

“People in federal government need to assist the youths find out brand-new abilities. They need to embark on jobs that straight impact individuals, instead of embarking on political jobs.”

Reorientation likewise key

Eze Izim also required reorientation on the part of all and sundry, stating it “a collective duty.

“We need to go back to the norms and worths of our society which have long been eroded.

“This is the job of the households, the villages, the schools, the mosques and churches, and even the government. The national and state orientation agencies should do something, the exact same for our good example, our stars.

“Our political leaders must mind the method they spend money. They make the youths see money as whatever.”

He called on the youths to reroute their energies towards beneficial endeavors, believe outside the box and welcome ability learning.

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Source: Sun News

ToriNG